Monday, May 02, 2011

There are some fragrances that I will always love, regardless of how many different variations of the original appear over the years and Yves St. Laurent's completely irrepressible scent "Paris" is one of them! Maybe it's simply a matter of the power of suggestion, I mean come on, who couldn't resist a perfume named after one of the loveliest cities in the world! A lot has been written about this perfume and for good reason. It’s finally old enough to have become a classic, but it’s not jaded nor is it “old” . Like it’s namesake city it’s completely perfect!

Paris is a very appropriate fragrance for a lot of different occasions, whether it be a wedding or an afternoon tea, or even (especially!) a casual morning spent in bed with a latte’ and the style magazine of the Sunday New York Times. This is a fragrance that works well for many occasions. This bright scent loves denim or taffeta and I've worn it successfully with both! Paris is a soft cotton oversized boyfriend shirt, cashmere and pearls or a very bohemian bit of velvet and wicked black lace. This fragrance isn't officious or the least bit pretentious, it's fun and just sweet enough to be extraordinarily flirtatious and totally beguiling. This winsome little Parisian just wants to get on a bicycle built for two with her lover and ride alongside the river, enjoying a picnic and a very good time. If she ends up at a gallery for an opening or her mothers for dinner even better, she’s completely prepared and she might even sneak in an espresso and a cigarette along the way...Trust me, not many perfumes can do all that in one day!

Every year they (YSL) launch a new limited edition version of the scent with a gorgeous variation of the bottle. This seasons version is housed in a lovely translucent rose colored flacon, is named Paris “Premieres Roses” and sounds like an absolute dream blend of Lily of the Valley, Centifolia rose , orange blossom ,violet and peony and I absolutely can’t wait to try it , however, no matter how many versions they create, I’m pretty sure that traditional Paris will remain my tried and true favorite, always making me happy every time that I wear it. Traditional Paris is a contemporary yet very seductive fragrance, elegant and redolent of vanilla, rose, bergamot and sandalwood, along with just enough violet to make any occasion simply magical!

Smelling this always taken back to fresh Laduree macarons, gorgeous flowers and carriage rides shared with my husband whilst munching away happily on a bag of steaming, freshly roasted chestnuts! YSL’s Paris is as delicious as a chilled flute of champagne , made even more festive with a lump of sugar and a juicy drop of cassis and as jaunty as a perfectly tied Hermes scarf! This is the one perfume that I’ve always got packed in my weekend getaway bag along with my black pumps, favorite Lipstick Queen lipstick and my Ralph Lauren wrap dress.

But today I’m not going anywhere! It’s Sunday morning and my husband thinks that this perfume is simply edible…bring the champagne and macarons back to bed and the scarf be damned……..

I have Jardins Romantiques & it kind of exemplifies the decline of modern perfume.

The opening is beautiful, fresh & green. If only they'd extended that into a pretty drydown it would be better than the original IMHO.

But instead they tacked a wallop of that awful chemical that smells like harsh, fake woods/musk/dryer sheets onto the end. It is actually unpleasant to sniff the last stage so I seldom wear it any more.

Perfume companies take note: no drydown would be far preferable to a plastic-fantastic 'cashmere woods' mess. I for one have learned to scope it out in testers before buying anything, and a good portion of new perfumes seem to contain it, usually in the drydown.

As one who was a teenager in the 80s, I'm always puzzled as to why I never smelled Paris when it was new.

Really, I never did. Or perhaps I mistook it for Exclamation.

In any case, I smelled the modern version of it a few years ago and found it, as you say, light-hearted and romantic, almost insistently so. It is lovely. I have a vintage mini that I do not wear often because it is rather, well, loud.

I have one of the Printemps flankers, Pont des Amours, and wear it frequently. It is less complex than Paris, of course, and the drydown is faint, but I don't mind. It is Simply Pretty, and who doesn't need exactly that from time to time?

I was contemplating a flanker (the Jardins Enchantees one or whatever it's called) but I ended up with a bottle of the vintage original and wow is it ever gorgeous! I always smelled it in the store when it was new but somehow I never bought any. It really packs a punch, which is one of the things I love about it! Great review, it certainly does bring out the romance.

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